Two local ordinances granted rights to at least 175 stingless bee species in Peru, which are culturally and spiritually significant to Indigenous peoples and help maintain a healthy rainforest ecosystem
Satipo, a province in central Peru, passed the first ordinance granting legal rights to stingless bees within the Avireri Vraem Biosphere Reserve in October, per Inside Climate News’ Teresa Tomassoni. And last month, the town of Nauta in northeastern Peru followed suit, reports the Guardian’s Damien Gayle.
Under the new laws, stingless bees now have the fundamental right to exist and flourish in a healthy environment, without pollution, habitat loss, climate change, human activity or other threats getting in the way of their survival. Humans can also file lawsuits on the insects’ behalf.
The ordinances represent a “turning point in our relationship with nature: it makes stingless bees visible, recognizes them as rights-bearing subjects and affirms their essential role in preserving ecosystems,” Constanza Prieto, the Latin America legal director at the Earth Law Center, one of the organizations advocating for Peru’s stingless bees, tells the Guardian.
The newly adopted stingless bee ordinances in Peru are the latest examples of the “rights of nature” movement, which aims to combat the global biodiversity crisis by strengthening legal protections for animals and ecosystems.
Though a handful of other creatures have been granted legal rights—such as sea turtles in Panama and all wild animals in Ecuador—experts say these are the first such instances involving insects.
“We’re still looking at this crazy increasing extinction rate,” Nicholas Fromherz, an international wildlife legal expert at the Lewis & Clark Law School, told Tomassoni at the Washington Post in 2023. “All these other protections just aren’t enough.”
“These bees are key to life in the Amazon,” Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, a chemical biologist who founded Amazon Research Internacional, a group focused on preserving Amazonian biodiversity, ecosystems and Indigenous knowledge, tells CNN’s Bill Weir. “They are the most efficient pollinator of the most important crops we have here. But they are also indirectly contributing to carbon capture by keeping our forests and our trees alive and regenerating.”
The gentle creatures have also long been culturally and spiritually important to Peru’s Indigenous peoples, including the Asháninka and Kukama-Kukamiria, who have been cultivating the bees since time immemorial. They use the stingless bees’ honey and pollen for food and medicine, and their sticky “bee glue,” or propolis, for candles and arrows.
“Bees are part of the family,” César Ramos, president of Eco Asháninka, an organization representing 25 Indigenous communities in Peru, tells Inside Climate News.
But stingless bees are now facing numerous threats, including pesticides, climate change, deforestation and competition with invasive European and African honey bees. Indigenous community members say the critters are disappearing.
Next up, they’re advocating for a national version of the newly passed local laws. A petition to make that dream a reality already has more than 388,000 signatures.
A “gentle revolution is buzzing” in Peru, which can set an example for other nations, according to an Instagram post from the groups spearheading the movement. “Indigenous communities are leading the charge—let’s rise with them.”
Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.